What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting

WTNH– Her hope since she was a little girl was to have children, but at age 24, due to cervical cancer, Colleen Parise of Meriden had to have a hysterectomy and faced the fact that she would never carry her own child.

“I think it’s a very cliff notes version of what it’s like to be pregnant. If I had to picture it, it is hot flashes, it is hormones, it is crying, you’re giving yourself shots. I have to give myself shots everyday which was quite the experience. I had my sister who is a nurse helping me in the beginning at least, but then I had to take control and do it myself, and after the first few it gets easier to do I guess. But that’s definitely an emotional roller coaster. The people around you get to witness all aides at one time, sometimes the hardest day going through this,” said Parise.

Parise also told Nyberg she “never” asked herself why she was doing this.

“As horrible as that experience was, I actually had what they called OHSS. I was over stimulated so we produced too many follicles too quickly which got me borderline ill. I was vomiting, had a high fever, without a doubt in my mind I would do it again today if that’s what it took,” Parise said.

“She’s very tough. She really is. I mean with all the procedures that she has gone through to get to this point, I mean I don’t wish that on any woman. It’s tough. It’s not like she was saying her emotional hormones were going up and down,” said Lou.

When asked what the toughest day for him to watch her go through this, Lou said “this whole experience is just tough, because she really wants to have a natural child birth and she can’t. The whole process to me is a very tough thing, emotionally and physically.”

The Parises came out of IVF with eight fertilized eggs and if all goes well they could soon have a gestational surrogate to carry their child.

Through Colleen Parise’s blog, it’s the hope she and her husband can be the voices for other couples who are on a similar journey.